Avengers: Secret Wars co-director Anthony Russo rejected the movie at first

Anthony Russo initially turned down the idea of directing ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’.

The filmmaker is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with his directing brother Joe Russo and screenwriter Steven McFeely for ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ and its sequel ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’, though Joe has revealed Anthony initially wasn’t a fan of the idea of helming the follow-up blockbuster.

Joe told Empire magazine: "There were ideas that we were trying to wrap our heads around that preceded this one, and we just never found the story.

"I remember calling Steve and said, ‘Hey, crazy idea. What do you think if we all go back and do ‘Secret Wars?’

"[Anthony] was like, ‘F*** no. Absolutely not.’ And then you hung up. And the next morning at 7:30 you called and were like, ‘Alright, I have an idea.’"

Anthony added he and Joe "stumbled upon an idea" that got the wheels turning on ‘Secret Wars’.

He explained: "Really what happened was, we ended up stumbling upon an idea that activated all of us.

"You couldn’t see it coming until it came, and once it came it was like, ‘Well, that’s a story we need to tell.’"

The directing siblings started their MCU journey in 2014 with ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, and went on to helm its sequel ‘Captain America: Civil War’, as well as ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ before exiting the franchise following 2019’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and they weren’t planning to return to the series for the upcoming projects.

Anthony noted: "‘Endgame’ was the end, and it took a little time for us to begin to think about it as something other than an end."

The moviemaking pair had remained in contact with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and franchise executive producer Lou D’Esposito, and had discussed "a lot of ideas" for potential films.

Anthony continued: "We’re very close with Kevin and Lou and the entire Marvel team and we’ve had conversations through the years. We’ve talked about a lot of ideas."

‘Avengers: Doomsday’ will reintroduce Robert Downey Jr. - who had fronted the MCU as Iron Man until the character’s heroic sacrifice in ‘Endgame’ - as the dreaded Doctor Doom, while the new Avengers are forced to do all they can from allowing the villain from enacting his sinister plans.

Meanwhile, it was previously confirmed Anthony Mackie’s Captain America, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four team - consisting of Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) - would all be returning for ‘Doomsday’.

As for other stars, it has also been rumoured that former Captain America actor Chris Evans and Ana de Armas were both lined up for roles in the 2026 blockbuster, though their supposed parts in the film are currently unknown.